NAMPA -- A new Idaho law enacted in 2010 is designed to protect medical professionals by allowing them to refuse health care services that conflict with their religious, moral or ethical principles.

But Planned Parenthood says a Nampa pharmacist acted in the wrong and was not protected by the law when she refused to fill a prescription. [...]

The prescription at the center of this is methergine. It’s used to prevent bleeding after childbirth or after an abortion.

In November, a Planned Parenthood nurse called this Nampa Walgreen's for a methergine prescription.

According to Planned Parenthood, the Walgreen's pharmacist asked if their patient had an abortion.

The nurse says she cited federal patient privacy laws and refused to answer.

"The pharmacist said, 'Well, if you're not going to tell me that and she had an abortion, I'm not going to fill this prescription.' And then our practitioner said, 'Why don't you tell me another pharmacy that I can call or another pharmacist that can dispense this medication for my patient?' And the pharmacist hung up on her," said Kristen Glundberg-Prosser of the Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest.

So, if I was a doctor and it would be against my religion to help anyone who's not sharing said religion, I could just refuse to help fundies, according to this new law? Did they consider that when they passed that thing?

The point is, Fundie God has decreed that the alleviation of suffering is not as important as the upholding of one of His whims. Now we all know that Fundie God is totally nuts, so it stands to reason that the actions of His earthly puppets are, correspondingly, totally nuts as well. In fact, Fundie God is also so paranoid that He refuses to show Himself. No wonder they call Him the Invisible Mad Twat, Lord of Insanity, Cloud King of Drooling Morons and Chief Magic Sky Pixie of Violent Maniacs. We should obey every inaudible command He utters (inaudible to everyone except His special interpreters, often bearded madmen), and bow to His invisible, vaporous self.

Remember, God's stupid whims trump all. No one knows why, they're not supposed to know because it's all lunacy anyway. Probably because some beardy wrote it in the Bible.

Doesn't surprize me at all. In the battle against evolution it seems pharmacists/chemists are the creationists sides highest trained professionals.

Also, as a pharmacist you are professionally all up in everyones business which appeals to Fundies. Remember the onset of the Morning After pill? Large groups of pharmacists refused to stock it because of their strong religious convictions.

Comming from Idaho I'm surprised it wasn't a race thing. So I guess this is progress.

This sounds like something X-tians would pass.
Basically this law says "Well, you couldn't possibly have known you were violating my faith but I'm gonna punish you for it anyway because inflicting suffering and death is how I get off."

Another example of religion endangering life is refusal to fill birth control prescriptions. Many women suffer from menorrhagia, which rapidly causes severe anemia- thus making the woman weak and susceptible to a wide range of health problems. There are politicians who want to allow pharmacists to deny women BC prescriptions, such as Tom Emmer. Target/Best Buy contributed to his campaign- and that, boys and girls, is why I no longer shop at these places.

"The pharmacist said, 'Well, if you're not going to tell me that and she had an abortion, I'm not going to fill this prescription.' And then our practitioner said, 'Why don't you tell me another pharmacy that I can call or another pharmacist that can dispense this medication for my patient?' And the pharmacist hung up on her," said Kristen Glundberg-Prosser of the Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest.

Planned Parenthood called the pharmacist's actions dangerous."

I smell a medical malpractice suit in the offing.

Never mind the bleeding suffered by that poor woman, that thrice-damned pharmacist is going to look like the metaphorical equivalent of a victim in the "Saw" or "Hostel" films, when the ambulance-chaser lawyers are done with this person.

Some people seem to forget the US's most litigious society status. Oh well, that pharmacist's loss (financially; and destroyed career), that lawyer & his/her client's gain.

Three Words: Hippocratic Oath, bitch.

@Mister Spak, shykid

Whenever we get a fundie screaming 'Liberal death panel' blue bloody murder (pun not intended) here in FSTDT, all we have to do is direct them to this particular instance of a right-wing Fundamentalist death panel.

@Doctor Whom

My physician is a Sufi Muslim, and with him having a private practice as a consultant anaesthetist, he's done so at a number of abortions. He sees no conflict with his beliefs, and his profession; the Hippocratic Oath, and all that jazz. His wife is a pharmacist of many years standing - and she's had no problem with dispensing the 'morning after pill' to women - sometimes prescribed to said patients by her husband.

Since moving to the UK from Uganda in the 70s (Idi Amin's purge of Indian/Pakistani citizens, resulting in the 'brain drain' there; their loss, the UK's gain), he's told me that he & his family have never been happier. And that the NHS is the greatest institution of it's kind on the planet.

If it is against your religion to stop or prevent bleedings, perhaps you shouldn't pursue the medical field. Just a thought.
(I could perhaps agree that she's allowed to pass the task over to her colleague, if she can't stomach to do it. But flat out refuse and hang up; nope, that's not even wrong.)

What if it's against the religion of a fireman to touch a woman during her period? Is he then allowed to just let this pharmacist's body burn to a cinder, if she's trapped on the third floor in a burning building and can't or won't inform him whether she's mensturating or not?